Great Zimbabwe, Mashonaland, Rhodesia: An account of two years' examination work in 1902-4 on behalf of the government of RhodesiaHall, R. N. (Richard Nicklin)
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Great Zimbabwe, Mashonaland, Rhodesia: An account of two years' examination work in 1902-4 on behalf of the government of Rhodesia
Hall, R. N. (Richard Nicklin)
Great Zimbabwe (Extinct city); Zimbabwe -- Antiquities
Certainly the many visitors who travel hundreds, if not thousands, of
miles to view these ruins, and who only see them by the glare of day,
miss nine-tenths of the charm, fascination, and inspiration which the
walls of the temple at Zimbabwe have in store for those who walk its
courts in the stillness of the night when the midsummer moon is at the
full. This is the time to see Zimbabwe aright, for Zimbabwe by day and
Zimbabwe by night presents two entirely different aspects.
Trees throw gigantic shadows on the walls and darken the inner
courts, and the floors are chequered by moonbeams shining through
the foliage overhead. One somehow becomes possessed with the idea
that these walls are peopled with the spirits of prehistoric age,
who are moving, as of old, about the temple floors and passages,
still performing their ancient priestly offices. The movement of
every shadow against the walls suggests the passing from point to
point of some three-millenniumed spectral form, too engrossed in its
sacred avocations to heed the mortal presence of two strangers of the
twentieth century after Christ. Would that these hoary-aged walls could
speak and tell us of the scenes which took place here when the Great
Zimbabwe was in all its glory! Assuredly a midnight hour spent in this
ancient temple overwhelms one with most novel sensations, some slightly
queer and shivery, others awe-inspiring and soul-stirring.
While still standing just inside the west entrance some thoughts
suggest themselves. The ancients being Nature worshippers of one of
the earliest cults, so says Bent, had sought in the erection of their
temple to compel the concentration of thought on the heavens alone, for
even the reduced heights of the summits of the walls, averaging from 22
ft. to 31 ft., shut off, except for gaps, all views of the surrounding
landscape. Nothing is visible save the moon and a skyful of silent,
glittering stars. The Pleiades, by the rising and setting of which the
Makalanga mark their sowing and harvesting, are sinking towards the
W.N.W. horizon, and Orion, which is prominent in the star-pictures
of the natives, is following down in their wake. A large area of the
sky is hidden by the bright radiance of the full moon. But such high
massive walls enclosing the temple, and limiting the view to the sky
alone, strike the mind of the stranger unread in the lore of ancient
Semitic faiths as the purposed design of the ancient architects,
especially so when it is recollected that some of the ancient floors
are at a much lower level than the interiors as seen to-day. And just
as Britishers in Rhodesia unconsciously turn their gaze at night
towards the stars which lie low near the northern horizon, so in the
contracted view afforded by the temple walls we can well imagine that
during their midnight vigils the eyes of the ancient colonists from
the north would, as naturally, frequently and lingeringly glance over
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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